Electrophoretic displays that use electrophoresis to display images are well known in the art. This type of electrophoretic display has a display section that includes a transparent top substrate, and a bottom substrate disposed in opposition to the top substrate. A spacer provided around the periphery of the substrates provides a prescribed gap between the substrates and forms a hermetically sealed space therebetween. The hermetically sealed space is filled with a liquid dispersion medium containing charged pigment particles. By generating an electric field in the display section with the two substrates, the display moves charged particles in the liquid dispersion medium to the top electrode side in order to display the color of the charged particles on the surface, or moves the charged particles to the bottom substrate side so as to not display the color of the charged particles. In this way, the electrophoretic display can produce desired images.
One such electrophoretic display disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. SHO-59-34518 is provided with dividing members (partitions) for partitioning the display section into a lattice of small cells. In this way, the electrophoretic display can maintain a uniform gap between the two substrates, even when the surface area of the display section is increased, and can prevent a great bias or aggregation of the charged particles.
Another electrophoretic display disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2003-149690 provides a plurality of spherical bodies in the display section capable of concealing the charged particles when the charged particles are moved to the bottom substrate side so that the user cannot detect the charged particles. This electrophoretic display improves contrast in the displayed image (see Patent Reference 2, for example)